Following a 15-season run on Supernatural, Jensen Ackles has signed on to join the cast of The Boys for the show’s already-greenlit third season. The acclaimed comic book series returns for its second season Sept. 4 on Amazon Prime Video.
Ackles will play Soldier Boy — the original superhero. After Soldier Boy fought in World War II, he became the first super celebrity, and a mainstay of American culture for decades.
“When I was a child, I had a crazy, impossible dream — to provide Jensen Ackles with gainful employment. I’m happy to say that dream has come true,” joked Eric Kripke, the showrunner and executive producer of The Boys, as well as the creator of Supernatural. “Jensen is an amazing actor, an even better person, smells like warm chocolate chip cookies, and I consider him a brother. As Soldier Boy, the very first Superhero, he’ll bring so much humor, pathos, and danger to the role. I can’t wait to be on set with him again, and bring a bit of Supernatural to The Boys.”
A third season of The Boys was announced during the show’s SDCC panel on July 23rd, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re still weeks away from the Season 2 premiere, which finds Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and friends on the run from the law, hunted by the Supes, and desperately trying to regroup in order to fight back against Vought.
In hiding, Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capon) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) try to adjust to a new normal, though Butcher is missing in action. Meanwhile, Starlight (Erin Moriarty) must navigate her place in The Seven as Homelander (Antony Starr) sets his sights on taking complete control. His power is threatened with the addition of Stormfront (Aya Cash), a social media-savvy new Supe, who has an agenda of her own. On top of that, the Supervillain threat takes center stage and makes waves as Vought seeks to capitalize on the nation’s paranoia.
The Supes of The Seven also include Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), The Deep (Chace Crawford) and Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell). Recurring stars in season two include Claudia Doumit, Goran Visnijc, Malcolm Barrett, Colby Minifie, Shantel VanSanten, Cameron Crovetti, PJ Byrne and Laila Robbins, while Giancarlo Esposito returns as Vought boss Stan Edgar.
Based on the New York Times best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys was developed by Kripke, who in addition to serving as showrunner and executive producer, is also the writer of the series. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg also executive produce with their Point Grey partner James Weaver (Preacher), Original Film’s Neal H. Moritz (Prison Break) and Pavun Shetty (New Girl), as well as Phil Sgriccia, Craig Rosenberg, Rebecca Sonnenshine, Ken Levin and Jason Netter. Ennis and Robertson also co-executive produce along with Michael Saltzman.
The second season of The Boys will premiere with the first three episodes on Friday, Sept. 4, and the five remaining episodes will be made available each Friday following, culminating in an epic season finale on Oct. 9.
Ackles currently stars as the lead on the CW‘s longest-running drama Supernatural, which is finishing its fifteenth season. He plays Dean Winchester, the rugged bad boy who teams up with his younger brother (Jared Padalecki) to find their missing father and battle evil supernatural forces. Ackles also starred opposite Jaime King in 2009’s 3D remake of My Bloody Valentine. His previous TV credits include Smallville, Dark Angel and Dawson’s Creek. Check out Ackles’ social media post below, and click here to watch the opening scene from Season 2 of The Boys. Fair warning: it’s pretty graphic, so enjoy!
via Collider